Alan Tidwell

Probably 70% of my recruiting practice is for BigLaw. That may be lower than many of my MLA colleagues. Why do I do so much work with mid-sized and smaller firms? A few reasons. In California we are spoiled for choice when it comes to boutiques -- both subject matter focused firms, and full-service boutiques are local institutions here. So, there are a lot of options! A lot of people don't want to work in BigLaw anymore/again/ever. My job is candidate-focused, so it's my job to find a role that matches what people want. It's definitely not my job to wedge them back into BigLaw because I don't have other options to offer them. In the last week MLA has begun a relationship with 3 new boutiques in Northern California, and the list grows all the time. Smaller firms allow associates to broaden out their practices -- their litigation teams do ALL kinds of work, because they don't have critical mass to have specialist strike teams. This model exists across corproate too - smaller firms' corporate teams may include M&A, ECVC, funds, tech trans... Being a generalist is appealing on its face but is also a great path to an in house role. Many, but not all, smaller firms offer better work/life balance. They may also be a more comfortable format for lawyers who want to know their colleagues more closely. So, don't rule out a smaller firm -- you may be surprised if you speak to them at just how much it sounds like the right fit.

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Thanks to Law360 for publishing our article on the new privacy litigation trend in California -- Song-Beverly Credit Card Act claims based on online transactions. And thanks to Desirée Hunter-Reay for helping write it. Hopefully, we can nip this trend in the bud before it turns into another CIPA Pen-Trap situation. https://lnkd.in/gvgyrFMz

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Last week, our Senior Director of Innovation Sam Moore had the privilege of attending Legal Innovators California in San Francisco and participating in the panel "Harnessing the Power of Generative AI in Legal Practice.” When Sam debriefed with colleagues and fellow attendees Anusia Gillespie and Ian Gillespie, MBA CSPO, they all noticed a similar theme throughout the event: 🚀 junior associates need “future skills,” and they need them now. 🚀 So, what are future skills? ❓ Where do law firms currently stand when it comes to addressing this urgent need? ⏰ And, how can they take a more proactive approach? ✔ Check out Sam's blog post to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gffEPSkW #legalinnovatorscalifornia #juniorassociatetraining #futureskills #generativeai #genai

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Highlights from Legal Innovators California. Snapshot of the panel 'Contracting in the Age of GenAI: From Standardization to Innovation' featuring our CEO, Tariq Akbar. Ft. Dr. Megan Ma, Jake Heath, Naveen Pai, Ilona Logvinova, Thomas Hansteen. #legalinnovators2024 #genAI

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From primary law resources to authoritative treatises and jury instructions, you’ll find the leading authorities on California federal and state law at LexisNexis. These are the resources you can turn to again and again for thorough, up-to-date legal resources in California. Learn more at LexisNexis.com/California. #CaliforniaLaw #CaliforniaLawyer #LawBooks #LexisNexis

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From primary law resources to authoritative treatises and jury instructions, you’ll find the leading authorities on California federal and state law at LexisNexis. These are the resources you can turn to again and again for thorough, up-to-date legal resources in California. Learn more at LexisNexis.com/California. #CaliforniaLaw #CaliforniaLawyer #LawBooks #LexisNexis

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Happy National Paralegals Day! Swing by to say hello to Alex Lubarsky, who will present at the San Francisco Paralegal Association at 11:00 am today. Alex's session is titled "From Data to Discovery: Mastering eDiscovery Fundamentals." Remember to drop a business card in the bowl to win a gift card. We’re excited to share a few key points from our upcoming eDiscovery presentation. Here’s what you need to know: 1. Know the EDRM: Understanding the steps in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model is important. This helps us manage and protect electronic data effectively during the discovery process. 2. Be Competent: Get familiar with both the technical and legal aspects of eDiscovery. This includes knowing how to handle metadata, native formats, and ensuring we follow legal rules about data preservation and confidentiality. 3. Use Technology: Embrace advanced tools like predictive coding and AI. These technologies make reviewing documents and finding the important information we need easier and faster. We want to thank all the paralegals out there. Today, like every day, you get to wear your #superhero cape! The legal field is what it is with you! #SFPA #paralegals #eDiscovery #litigation #artificialintelligence #lawyers #legalfield Brent Gustafson Tim Morenc CEDS Donna M. Sarah Thompson, CEDS Amy McGuigan, ACP, CEDS, CAS #legaltech BlueStar

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I have reviewed hundreds if not thousands of job postings for legal counsel in my almost 25 years of practice, and so many of those postings continue to expect the applicant to be both extremely detail oriented, and to manage a large volume of agreements within very short deadlines. There simply is no such beast - at least I have never met one. I highly recommend the job posters use "Smart enough to identify the risks involved, and experienced enough to know whether those risks are real." That nets realistic candidates with the right skills, in my opinion.

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Snag one of our final limited offer granting you 30% off for the premier West Coast #legaltech event of the year. Use code 'LICFlash3024' and secure your ticket to unlock the future of law today. This is only available through Wednesday, so be quick! 🎫 https://lnkd.in/g_Hwzry #legalinnovatorscalifornia #LegalInnovation #LegalTech #LawTechConference #LegalDisruption #LegalTechSolutions #sanfransicoevents #legalevents #legalinnovators #LegalInsights #TechInLaw

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Curious about how California's new disclosure bill could impact your business operations? Lowenstein Sandler LLP's latest client alert provides a comprehensive overview of the key provisions and what you need to know. #antimoneylaundering #moneylaundering #investmentmanagement #californialaw #taxlaw

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Two nights ago, NACD Northern California Chapter and Foley & Lardner LLP welcomed a group of globally-focused board directors to a private dinner. My partners Christopher Swift, who runs our firm’s national security team, and freshly joined Brian Wheeler, led a discussion around geopolitical threats, enforcement trends, and practical consequences to the phenomena relating to “securitization” of international trade and investment. Dr. Swift set the stage with three key paradigm shifts: 🔸 Economic: globalization to regionalization 🔻 Political: integration to fragmentation 🔺 Sociological: comprehension (fact-based decision making) to apprehension (emotion-based decision making) The practical consequences, as we see them, are that: 🔷 There are increasing restraints on cross-border trade and investment 🔵 More decisions are based on perceptions and posturing rather than facts (subjective vs. objective decision making) ☑ There is a growing tendency to turn commercial issues into security issues (that do not actually implicate national security) Our discussion highlighted the necessity for directors to prompt management to evaluate the potential risks and vulnerabilities stemming from geopolitical threats and regulatory enforcement actions. This process includes actively identifying areas of exposure, assessing the likelihood and impact of different scenarios, and creating strategies to mitigate risks and strengthen resilience. Here are several questions to consider asking at your next board meeting: ❓ How does the company gather and analyze intelligence on geopolitical developments?   ❔ What crisis planning has been done to manage various worst-case scenarios and how often is management reviewing this?   ⁉ How is management staying apprised of regulatory changes or compliance requirements related to geopolitical risks and international trade?    ⭕ How are we ensuring that our operations remain compliant in volatile markets? ❌ How resilient is our supply chain when it comes to geopolitical disruptions? Do we know who our suppliers' suppliers are? Do we have alternate suppliers on standby in the case of a geopolitical crisis?   ✖ How can the board support management in addressing these geopolitical challenges?   ✴ How may geopolitical issues affect the culture of the business and the employees/offices worldwide? Thank you 🙏 to Brian Wheeler for co-hosting the event with me, and Christopher Swift for leading the night's discussions. Special thanks 🙏 to our NACD directors Lisa Spivey 史白薇 and Kate Azima for bringing us all together. They do such an incredible job for us! 🙌 #techlaw #boardofdirectors #corporategovernance #venturecapital #foleyforward #garage2global #internationaltrade, #internationalsecurity, #doingbusiness, #china, #russia, #europeanunion, #unitedstates

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CA employers: The recent, unpublished California Court of Appeal decision, Hegemier v. A Better Life Recovery LLC (https://lnkd.in/eUAmFvBm) is a stark reminder to review employee documentation to ensure compliance with the state’s ever-changing legal landscape. In Hegemier, the Court of Appeals held that a provision in an arbitration agreement that excluded from arbitration “claims that are not subject to arbitration under current law” refers to what was excluded as of the date the arbitration agreement was signed. Therefore, even though the US Supreme Court ruled in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana (https://lnkd.in/gm7dbKrv) that individual claims under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) could be forced into arbitration, because the plaintiff in this case signed the agreement prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Court of Appeals held that the rule in place at the time the employee signed the agreement (prior to that Supreme Court decision) governed. Accordingly, the court held that the employer could not require the employee to bring her PAGA claim in arbitration. Employers in California should review their arbitration agreements (including when they were signed) to ensure that they do not run into similar issues.  #CA #DGPERKS

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Starting July 1, those in California should expect: (i) clearer pricing, and/or (ii) a lot more consumer litigation. The new so-called "Honest Pricing Law" is designed to combat Drip Pricing, where the true price of a good or service is higher and not revealed upfront. Under the new law, businesses are prohibited from “[a]dvertising, displaying, or offering a price for a good or service that does not include all mandatory fees or charges” other than government-imposed taxes or fees or reasonable shipping costs. So what does "revealed upfront" mean? The new changes to the law do not specify. However elsewhere the statute requires for "Advertising that a product is being offered at a specific price plus a specific percentage of that price" (aka, we are offering it for dealer's cost plus 10%), the total price needs to be displayed "in a size larger than any other price in that advertisement."

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Catch Bruno Katz’s April 30 California Restaurant Association webinar on strategies for establishing robust policies and procedures to prevent and respond to #sexualharassment claims, how to navigate the investigation process with fairness and objectivity & more! https://lnkd.in/gmb3ygrB #WilsonElser #employmentlaw

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There is finally a practical approach to supporting the legal needs of clients. Time to break from the traditional law firm model with excessive rates and often little practical in-house experience. Give OGC a try. You will not regret it.

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Catch Me if You Can: CTA Reporting Captures Companies That Don’t Exist As I wrote in my recent blog, AINsight: Corporate Transparency Act Descends on Bizav, available at https://lnkd.in/gFNHaxWt, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) requires disclosure of personal information to find bad guys for financial crimes like money laundering. A division of the U.S. Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is the chief enforcer of the CTA. The CTA requires disclosing personal information in a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report to FinCEN even for companies that do not exist on its reporting date. That seems non-sensical, but here’s the basic idea (as clarified by FinCEN in a July 8, 2024 update of its “Frequently Asked Questions” - Question “C.13”): Unless exempt, if a reporting company (see FAQ Question C.1) continued to exist as a legal entity on or after January 1, 2024 (i.e., did not entirely complete the process of formally and irrevocably dissolving before January 1, 2024, under applicable state law), then the reporting company is required to report its BOI to FinCEN. This is the rule even if the company had wound up its affairs and ceased conducting business before January 1, 2024. TAKEAWAY: Unless an entity that exists on January 1, 2024, ceases to exist under its state law by merger, dissolution or other means, plan to report BOI to FinCEN on a timely basis to avoid potentially significant civil and criminal penalties. TWISTING UP FINCEN: With the Chevron decision on the books (see my earlier post), FinCEN may face serious challenges to ambiguities in the CTA. The overruled case, Chevron v Natural Resources Defence Council, Inc. et al., available at https://lnkd.in/gB-KdmiA, will likely force courts not to defer to FinCEN’s interpretations of ambiguous provisions of the CTA. #CTA #corporatetransparencyact #FinCEN #FinancialCrimesEnforcementNetwork #moneylaundering #financialcrimes #nonexistentcompanies #FinCENFrequentlyAskedQuestions #beneficialowners #beneficialownerinformation #beneficialownerinformationreports #July8CTAupdate

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A quick chat with our Co-Founder Dylan Ruga at Legal Innovators California! 🎤 In just three questions, Dylan dives into how Transcript Genius is a game-changer for large and small law firms, and what excites him the most for the future of this innovative AI tool. Check out the interview down below to learn more about the future of legal tech with Transcript Genius! 👇

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🚨 #GTAlert: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 1524 into law, creating vital exemptions to the "junk fee" law for food service businesses! This new legislation eases compliance burdens but leaves some questions unanswered. Stay informed and ensure your business is compliant to avoid risks! 📜💡 ▶️ Read more in this piece by Riley Lagesen, Adil Khan, Alice Kessler, and Magaly Zagal: https://buff.ly/3RT71Ds. #CaliforniaLaw #SB1524 #RestaurantIndustry #GTRestaurantIndustry #FoodIndustry #LegalUpdate

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